“Spirit House Japanese KTV” – Chris Coles
(....the written version of a talk given at Meta House in Phnom Penh Friday, February 22nd as part of the Opening for the NIGHT VISIONS show of paintings from the Bangkok Night...)
I am going to talk tonight about German Expressionism and how I see its relationship to the cultural movement known as South East Asia Noir.
I’m not
speaking as an academic or art historian but as an artist,
about what it is I find so interesting and like about the Expressionist
vision and how I use it in my own Expressionist-style noir paintings set
in South East Asia.
Since I can remember, I’ve always liked Expressionist art and my
favorite paintings are pretty much all by the various Expressionists.
Mostly German like George Grosz, Emil Nolde, Otto Dix, Kirchner,
Beckmann, Schmidt-Rotluff, Jawlensky but also a few others like Ensor,
Schiele and Kokoschka.
“Metropolis” – George Grosz
I find Expressionist paintings interesting, the subjects and scenes,
the use of strong and often disharmonious colors, distorted images,
the use of artificial night-time lighting rather than daytime sunshine
and the often rough primitive technique.
Studying Expressionist paintings has been an important and crucial
element in shaping my own version of an “Expressionist style”.
Midnite Patpong” – Chris Coles
But the power and reach of the Expressionist vision has never just
been about “style” and “technique”. Part of the Expressionist vision’s
allure has also been its emphasis on at least some kind of “content”,
“story” or “narrative”, its ability to relate in some way, even if
indirectly and opaquely, to the social conditions and circumstances of
the larger society.
I think it’s interesting that Expressionist art in the 1900 to 1930
or so time frame in Germany blossomed amidst a period of tremendous
social change and chaos. During a period when traditional social
structures were rapidly disintegrating and in the context of the
large-scale slaughter of millions of people that took place in Europe in
and around World War One, much of which personally touched and
dramatically impacted on the lives of the Expressionist artists
themselves.
While these circumstances are not the same as the circumstances in
South East Asia over the last fifty years, it seems to me that there are
similarities to the often violent transformation and rapid, disruptive
changes that have been taking place throughout South East Asia in the
last half-century.
Felixmuller
Large scale industrialization and infrastructure development, immense
capital formation and wealth accumulation, massive population shifts
from rural areas to cities, disintegration of traditional social
structures and the globalization of millions of previously somewhat
isolated people and cultures.
All of this has created consequences, some good some bad, and has
often been accompanied by very high level of violence and an immense
amount of physical destruction.
“Explosion” – George Grosz
In the 50 year time period 1963 to the present, in Southeast Asia,
millions and millions of people have been killed or have died as the
result, directly and indirectly, of large-scale organized violence,
fraternal, internal and external.
Clearly, there are links between Expressionist art and the social and
political circumstances of the Central European world of the early
1900’s within which it was created.
Just as there are links between my own work, as well as the work of
other artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers working in present-day
Southeast Asia, and the social and political circumstances of the
societies in which they live.
“Rainbow Agogo” – Chris Coles
That’s not to say, these links between art and the broader society
and social structure are necessarily didactic, straight-forward or
completely clear. Nor should they be.
But these connections are nevertheless there.
“Songs from the Noir” Album/CD Cover
So how does the Expressionist vision I’ve been describing relate to
South East Asia Noir, an artistic and cultural movement which includes
various writers, musicians, filmmakers and artists who are making use of
modern Southeast Asia as a setting for their books, fiction and
non-fiction, songs, movies and paintings?
- Writers like Federico Ferrara, the author of the non-fiction book Thailand Unhinged, a brutal analysis of Thailand’s present-day political scene;
- Christopher G. Moore whose Calvino series, especially the one set in early 1990’s Phnom Penh, Zero Hour in Phnom Penh, is pure noir;
- John Burdett and
his series of noir detective stories set in South East Asia based around
the character of a Thai policeman named Sonchai Jitpleecheep;
- Jake Needham’s various South East Asia-based thrillers;
- Tim Hallinan and his Poke Rafferty series;
- Cleo Odzier’s harrowing Patpong Sisters; or Stephen Leather’s classic noir novel from the Bangkok Night titled Private Dancer;
- The Phnom Penh-based music group KROM and their recent album/CD, Songs from the Noir;
- The original Bangkok Dangerous film by the Pang Brothers and the more recent film True Skin, a short but powerful portrayal of Bangkok in a brutal noir future by the talented young director Stephan Zlotescu;
- Some of the Thai artists like Chatchai Puipia, Vasan Sitthiket and Anupong Chantorn;
- Peter Klashorst, a Dutch artist based in Phnom Penh;
- The German photographer Ralf Tooten;
- Andrew MacGregor Marshall, the hard-hitting ex-Reuters journalist whose explosive book, ThaiStory, on the history of the Thai monarchy, has created endless controversy and outrage.
- Nick Nostitz who
has done two seminal books of photos and text on the ongoing Thai
political battles as well as the brilliant ultra-noir photo essay set in
Patpong in the early 1990’s called Patpong: Bangkok’s Twilight Zone;
- And my own paintings, many of which are set in the vast, colorful and often very noir setting of the Bangkok Night.
“Ratchada Poseidon” – Chris Coles
All of these writers, musicians, filmmakers and artists seem to be
drawn to and make use of at least some of the following elements,
circumstances, characterizations and ambiance drawn from the noir side
of modern Southeast Asia.
A widespread fatalism, a kind of passive acceptance of one’s
circumstances, no matter how unjust, unfair and unpleasant those
circumstances might be.
“Tuk Tuk Guy Phnom Penh” – Chris Coles
A resignation in the face of unavoidable Karmic burdens acquired in past lives and deeds, burdens from which there is no escape.
An acceptance of a world and social system where power is often
exercised in arbitrary untransparent ways, often in shadows, hidden by
darkness, away from sunlight.
A world where endemic corruption is not only considered to be “normal” and “permanent” but even “essential”.
In most of these artistic works, there always seems to be double
helpings of Impunity, disenfranchisement, South East Asia Big Men, a
complete lack of any meaningful Rule of Law, almost no actual rights
inherently belonging to the individual.
Whether property rights, equality under the law, the right to
opportunity and social mobility, the right to “civil rights” or
“constitutional” rights
Quite the opposite.
Individuals are frequently and arbitrarily subject to state and Big
Man violence, selective and biased law enforcement, sometimes even
assassination and disappearances.
“Hindu goddess Kali Phnom Penh” – Chris Coles
In these noir stories, songs, films and paintings, the world of South
East Asia is often portrayed as a world in which most of the
inhabitants accept their own powerlessness or impotence in the face of
arbitrary and unrestrained authority, accept that they have little or no
recourse in the face of widespread injustice.
Accept that large and endemic commercial sex as well as illegal drug
industries are deeply and permanently embedded in the structure of their
societies and that these socially corrosive industries often operate
with the complicity and are sometimes even under the control of state
authorities as well as the various Big Men.
Accept that, in certain geographic areas, there are organized child
or underage sex businesses accompanied by inevitable social impacts and
consequences.
Accept that, even in year 2013, there is indentured and sometimes
slave labor, ongoing trafficking of men, women, children and babies.
Accept that there is large-scale trafficking of illegal and
counterfeit goods, of weapons of all kinds as well as various drugs and
narcotics.
That there are and always will be huge disparities in incomes, living standards, asset ownership, etc. etc
“Boys Town BKK” – Chris Coles
Altogether, for the various writers, musicians, filmmakers and
artists working in Southeast Asia who are inspired by and/or looking for
noir subjects and themes, there seems to be no shortage of available
material.
Unlike Impressionism which often dealt mainly with sunshine, pretty
flowers and the illusion or dream of “happiness”, the Expressionist
vision seems to have an ability to incorporate, deal with and process
all the noir stuff, the “unhappy” goings-on.
Often with an almost wild enthusiasm, using some form of the rugged,
sometimes downright ugly and often impolite or rude Expressionist style,
combined with vibrant, off-kilter, even putrid colors and contrast.
Bangkok After Hours – Chris Coles
In the early days of the Expressionist movement in Central Europe,
many Expressionist paintings were scorned as being way too “ugly”, too
disturbing, too disconcerting, and just all around “unpleasant”.
Art critics,
government officials and even ordinary people accused the Expressionists
of not only being despicable, degenerate and disgusting, but also in
desperate need of “drawing lessons”.
But, over time, in some weird almost inexplicable way, these very
same “incredibly distasteful, ugly and disturbing” Expressionist
paintings, sometimes but not always, become “beautiful”, even
“important”, and are now presented to an adoring public in some of the
world’s most prestigious museums, bought and sold at auctions for
millions of dollars by some of the world’s most cunning billionaires.
No one quite knows why, not even the art historians or famous art
critics. It’s kind of a mystery. Maybe it’s some kind of natural and
organic cultural cleansing process.
Part of what’s interesting and valuable about art is that it explores
and makes accessible areas of our lives, world, feelings and
perceptions that might be distasteful, ambiguous, hidden or partially
hidden, not easy and, perhaps even impossible, to fully understand.
“Fishbowl Ratchada” – Chris Coles
At the end of the day, art provides us with a place where, for a few
moments at least, we can put aside our words, daily worries and various
“fixed” ideas and viewpoints and absorb the colors and shapes, the
relations and possible meanings between all the colors and shapes and,
without physical risk or danger, let ourselves be drawn into the world
of the painting with our thoughts and feelings free to wander wherever.
Labels: Beckmann, Chris Coles, christopher g. moore, Dix, German Expressionism, Grosz, jake needham, john burdett, Kirchner, Krom, Meta House Phnom Penh, Nick Nostitz, Nolde, Peter Klashorst, Southeast Asia Noir
